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It's alright, an interesting and novel idea - next one will be incredible

In this DS game you get to play the role of Captain Yuri and quest through the depths of a galaxy, so very, very far away.

Sounds ace, sounds like it might be a free roaming game and you pretty much do anything you want to. You don't. I won't reveal too much of the plot.

You start off as a young boy and you get some sweet animation stuff that sets up the story and general plot outline. It's okay, you don't get a quest log or anything so you'd best keep your memory sharp. There isn't much of an interface either, you mash your pen to the screen and mostly end up hoping for the best. You have no real control over the characters and the game is essentially an RPG that is more 'rail shooter' than much else. Dialogue boxes everywhere. You will talk to the same characters again and again before unlocking some ephemeral something that'll let you progress the plot a few lines. Ugh.

You will quest about blindly looking for blue prints and crew members so you get the best ships and best crews together to beat the super bad ass enemies.

Having said that, you can customise each ship with different modules (the blue prints are part of this) for weapon perks and armor bonuses whilst you can swap crew members around for special options during combat. You will do a lot of fighting, you get money from fighting and doing minor side quests. You WILL do lots of these.

Eventually, after 20 hours or so of game play some stuff happens in the plot - initially i thought the game was over and was really, really disappointed by the credits and then bling! the second half of the game kicks off - Yuri is not a child anymore but a super buff man who's been in prison for a few years with some upgraded bad ass enemies and a few more pitfalls. I've over 30 hours invested into this game and i am stuck midway. Frustrating eh?

Graphically, most of the game is dialogue boxes and a tap the route to travel standard fare - the battles are fairly cool but after the 1000th battle, you will likely get a bit bored. The battles are a bit tricky and the AI is...well, it is a DS game and not a sweet 99ghz military processor PC. I found the voice acting, especially the intro to be suitably annoying and almost took the slug out of the DS and smashed it on the ground beneath my boot.

The interface is awkward and you will need to use your memory frequently because you will get no reminder! the quests are not particualrly taxing but still, some little f'king clue as to what you are supposed to do would help at times. It is ideal if you have 15 hours to spend on a repetitive task but the art work and collecting the astrological phenomenon is well done (and accurate!).

Ultimately, i'd rate this game as a 6/10. It is good and i have spent 30 hours on it. You can do lots of stuff with it and frankly, arranging my fleet of star ships and micromanaging the crew to get the 'best' out of them has been quite enjoyable. Buy it second hand or at a discount, as always with dubious game titles - NEVER GO FULL RETAIL! to avoid disappointment.